Relationship Between Parental Guidance and Students Career Choice in Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja-Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between parental guidance and students’ career choice in secondary schools in FCT, Abuja. Two research questions were formulated in order to guide the study. Primary data was used with the use of questionnaire.  A descriptive statistic was adopted for the study and the population of 12, 650 students in public and private secondary schools who are scheduled to write the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination in six (6) Area councils of FCT. Stratified random sampling was used to selected one government school and one private school from each of the six Area Councils, total twelve (12) schools. Six (6) schools were selected from the twelve schools and a total of 375 samples were finally selected randomly from the six schools. The hypotheses formulated were tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study show that there was no significant difference between the guidance of parents on students from urban or rural areas of residence.  However, parental guidance was higher on students’ career choice in private schools than those in public schools. It was therefore recommended that Parents should avoid the attitude of pushing their children into pursuing those wishful careers they were unable to pursue or achieved rather, they should employ the assistance of professional career counselors in helping their children to make intelligent career decisions. Also, there is need for government and other relevant agencies in charge of educational planning to make a comprehensive review of programme/curriculum of career education which will involve learning and choice of career from primary school level. Keywords: Career Choice, Parental Guidance, Secondary Schools Student

Report on baseline study to support PLAN Cambodia’s Integrated ECCD Projects in Siem Reap, Tbong Khmum and Ratanakiri provinces (Peer Reviewed)

This report presents key findings from a baseline study designed to support monitoring and evaluation of Plan International (Cambodia’s) integrated ECCD projects in Siem Reap (SR), Tbong Khmum (TK) and Ratanakiri (RK) provinces. The study was designed to provide an overview of the current situation in each province with regard to: Three to five year old children’s developmental status (as measured by an adapted version of the East Asia Pacific Early Childhood Development Scales – EAP-ECDS, which incorporates seven domains: Cognitive Development, Socio-Emotional Development, Motor Development, Language and Emergent Literacy, Health, Hygiene and Safety, Cultural Knowledge and Participation, and Approaches to Learning); Health status of children aged 0-5 years, as measured by anthropometric surveys; Family environments of children aged 0-5 years, as measured through the PLAN Parental Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey, which includes items on parental awareness of and habits related to the 12 Key Family Practices; parent perceptions of early stimulation and the importance of early childhood education, and parental self-efficacy / confidence; Community leaders’ perceptions on the extent to which their communities can be seen to be child friendly, as measured by an adapted version of the Child Friendly Community Self-Assessment Tool; Preschool ‘quality’ (as measured by the Cambodia Early Childhood Education Environment rating scale for community preschools (CECEE) and preschool teachers’ confidence levels (as measured by a teacher self-efficacy scale)

Assessing the association between dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors use and celiac disease through drug adverse event reporting

Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) enzyme is an endoprotease that removes N-terminal prolines from intestinal peptides. These peptides include glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which, as one of the main human incretin hormones produced by the gastrointestinal system, enhances insulin secretion in a glucose-dependent manner. Inhibition of DPP4 thus raises GLP-1 levels and has a glucose-lowering effect

Predictors of the Uptake of A (H1N1) Influenza Vaccine: Findings from a Population-Based Longitudinal Study in Tokyo

BACKGROUND: Overall pandemic A (H1N1) influenza vaccination rates remain low across all nations, including Japan. To increase the rates, it is important to understand the motives and barriers for the acceptance of the vaccine. We conducted this study to determine potential predictors of the uptake of A (H1N1) influenza vaccine in a cohort of Japanese general population. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By using self-administered questionnaires, this population-based longitudinal study was conducted from October 2009 to April 2010 among 428 adults aged 18-65 years randomly selected from each household residing in four wards and one city in Tokyo. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. Of total, 38.1% of participants received seasonal influenza vaccine during the preceding season, 57.0% had willingness to accept A (H1N1) influenza vaccine at baseline, and 12.1% had received A (H1N1) influenza vaccine by the time of follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounding variables, people who had been vaccinated were significantly more likely to be living with an underlying disease (p = 0.001), to perceive high susceptibility to influenza (p = 0.03), to have willingness to pay even if the vaccine costs ≥ US$44 (p = 0.04), to have received seasonal influenza vaccine during the preceding season (p<0.001), and to have willingness to accept A (H1N1) influenza vaccine at baseline (p<0.001) compared to those who had not been vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: While studies have reported high rates of willingness to receive A (H1N1) influenza vaccine, these rates may not transpire in the actual practices. The uptake of the vaccine may be determined by several potential factors such as perceived susceptibility to influenza and sensitivity to vaccination cost in general population

Down-regulation of GRP78 is associated with the sensitivity of chemotherapy to VP-16 in small cell lung cancer NCI-H446 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chemotherapy resistance remains a major obstacle for the treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), an endoplasmic reticulum chaperone, plays a critical role in chemotherapy resistance in some cancers. However, whether the suppression of the chaperone can enhance the sensitivity of chemotherapy in SCLC is still unclear.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The SCLC NCI-H446 cells were divided into three groups: BAPTA-AM→A23187-treated group, A23187-treated group and control-group. Immunofluorescence, western blot and RT-PCR were used to assess the expression of GRP78 at both protein and mRNA levels. Cell apoptosis and the cell cycle distributions of the cells were analyzed by flow cytometry in order to evaluate the therapeutic sensitivity to VP-16.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The expression of GRP78 at both protein and mRNA levels in the BAPTA-AM→A23187-treated cells dramatically decreased as compared to that in both A23187-treated and control groups. After treatment by VP-16, the percentage of apoptotic cells in BAPTA-AM→A23187-treated cells were: 33.4 ± 1.01%, 48.2 ± 1.77%, 53.0 ± 1.43%, 56.5 ± 2.13%, respectively, corresponding to the concentrations of BAPTA-AM 10, 15, 25, 40 μM, which was statistically significant high in comparison with the A23187-treated group and untreated-group (7.18 ± 1.03% and 27.8 ± 1.45%, respectively, p < 0.05). The results from analysis of cell cycle distribution showed that there was a significantly decreased in G₁phase and a dramatically increased in S phase for the BAPTA-AM→A23187-treated cells as compared with the untreated cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>BAPTA-AM is a strong inhibitor of GRP78 in the NCI-H446 cell line, the down-regulation of GRP78 can significantly increase the sensitivity to VP-16. The suppression of GRP78 may offer a new surrogated therapeutic approach to the clinical management of lung cancer.</p

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives